Anyone know ancient versions of XLC?

[Liam Proven]

On Thu, 15 Apr 2021 at 18:57, Guy Sotomayor via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

> I've used FrameMaker a lot...it's great for handling large documents and
> collections of documents.  Used it quite a bit at IBM and handled 1000+
> page documents (of course that wasn't all one "source" file).

ISTM that for DTP, there were 2 competing layout metaphors. One was
ideal for single-handed, ad-hoc layouts, and was friendly for
unskilled or untrained operators. The other was better for longer
documents, for structured docs where everything should look uniform --
long runs of documentation, or long series of magazine issues.

The former, the "pasteboard" model, includes PageMaker, MS Publisher,
Serif Page+ et al. The other, based on "frames" and "pouring" content
into them, includes Ventura Publisher, FrameMaker, Quark Xpress, and I
believe Adobe InDesign although I've never seen or tried it, although
I've supported all the otghers.

> I could never get my head around Word for anything more than 10 pages or
> so.  Just too hard to deal with everything in massive documents.

Outline mode is the key. I did a 220-page illustrated manual in one
big document in my last solo tech-writing contract, entirely as a Word
outline. From blank page to finished manual in 8 weeks, and 2nd
edition in 6 more weeks.

Without Outline mode, it would have been next to impossible and would
have required elaborate professional tooling that they didn't have.

> Using a mark-up language also means I generally have more control
> on how things appear in the document (something that continually
> frustrated me with Word especially when dealing with cross references
> and figures).

Fair. Never used LaTeX but in the dayjob I use DocBook XML and
AsciiDoctor to the same ends. I don't like them much but they do the
job and do it well. It makes all the layout and formatting Somebody
Else's Problem -- and even that SEP is 99.9% automated.

-- 
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